Another Apology Candidate

Some of the freeper faithful in these parts have managed to get their last words in since the Oct.30th cutoff of responses to editorial letters and Guest Opinions submitted to the Bucks County Courier Times. Some of these people are outraged over the paper’s support of Patrick Murphy in the U.S. House contest with Mikey, and a Guest Opinion from a regular offender in that regard appeared today.

(A minor point: the author’s name is listed as “Don” Staedtler, though his rants have appeared under the name of “Richard” every other time – cue the “X-Files” theme music…).

I will spare you the usual litany of winger nonsense and instead point out this passage from Staedtler in particular.

…the late Gerry Studds of Massachusetts not only molested an underage male page verbally, but physically. Mark Foley is out of Congress. Despite being censored (sic – “censured” is the correct term, of course), Gerry Studds was continually elected until he retired in 1996. The Democratic Party supported him and even gave him a standing ovation for sticking it out.

I guess “sticking it out” is supposed to be “Don” Staedtler’s idea of a bad joke (and what class to attack someone after this person is dead, by the way).

Ironically, when the Courier Times reported his death, they only reported the glowing tribute from his husband who said he gave courage to gay people everywhere by winning re-election after publicly acknowledging his homosexuality. The Courier failed to report his molestation of a male page at the beginning of his career.

Now we turn to the reality-based community in the form of this Wikipedia article (in particular this section)…

Studds was a central figure in the 1983 Congressional page sex scandal, when he and Representative Dan Crane were censured by the House of Representatives for separate sexual relationships with minors – in Studds' case, a 1973 sexual relationship with a 17-year-old male congressional page who was of the age of legal consent. The relationship was consensual (which made it legal, in accordance with state law), although very unprofessional of a politician, presenting ethical concerns relating to working relationships with subordinates.

During the course of the House Ethics Committee's investigation, Studds publicly acknowledged his homosexuality, a disclosure that, according to a Washington Post article, "apparently was not news to many of his constituents." Studds stated in an address to the House, "It is not a simple task for any of us to meet adequately the obligations of either public or private life, let alone both, but these challenges are made substantially more complex when one is, as I am, both an elected public official and gay." He acknowledged that it had been inappropriate to engage in a relationship with a subordinate, and said his actions represented "a very serious error in judgment."

And about that standing ovation...

In addition to the censure, the Democratic leadership stripped Studds of his chairmanship of the House Merchant Marine Subcommittee. Studds was later appointed chair of the House Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries. Studds received two standing ovations from supporters in his home district at his first town meeting following his congressional censure.

So there’s grounds for another apology that won’t be forthcoming anytime soon.